Amid the joys of going on holiday, the way in which we get there is rarely a fun experience, and now airports only look to get worse for us Brits.
Although some folks seem to love getting to the airport ridiculously early, spending an age in the arrival destination might well become the new norm as a new security system threatens to add several hours to wait times after the flight.
The Entry/Exit System (EES) was soft-launched in October 2025 and was introduced as a way of cutting down wait times by removing the need to have your passport stamped, but there certainly seems to have been some teething issues in the first few months.
Personally, I like having a passport filled with stamps from other countries but airports in the Schengen Area, which consists of 29 countries across Europe, are now embracing the new technology, which forces non-EU nationals have to register with an automated IT system.
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This includes registering personal details such as name, travel document data, biometric data (fingerprints and captured facial images) and the date and place of entry and exit, which naturally is going to take a lot of time, especially in an environment where plenty of people apparently don't know what constitutes a liquid.
Ričardas Šukys, CEO of Woop Drive, has now offered some advice on exactly how travellers can ensure that they're not stuck for hours in the airport, and a lot of it comes down to those who are renting their cars.
Completing paperwork using a mobile app rather than in person results in a 36 per cent faster pick up and increases customer satisfaction by around eight per cent, according to a recent study by J.D. Power.
Šukys said: “Border control is becoming more complex for non-EU travellers, and that pressure doesn’t stop once passengers clear passport checks. As arrival times become less predictable, services that still depend on manual handovers are increasingly exposed to delays. We wanted to change it immediately.”
Airports and travel associations have already warned that the situation could even get worse, especially in busier peak times such as Easter and summer, when multiple flights will arrive in a short period of time.
But it seems as if travellers from non-EU countries, such as ourselves, are going to have to get used to these longer arrival times throughout the entirety of 2026, especially if you make the mistake of daring to go in a busy holiday period.
Šukys added: “Besides hours at check-ups in the airports, renting a car right after you land in your destination country usually means added stress, time constraints, and hurry. Nobody wants to spend their first vacation hours at the rental desk when you’ve already booked yours online. But that’s what happens.
"We knew this process could be simplified and become as easy as ordering food through an app. Every non-manual process will have to adapt to serve the needs of non-EU tourists now.
James Moorhouse